De Bello Gallico 5.11

5.11.1Hīs rēbus cognitīs Caesar legiōnēs equitātumque revocārī atque in itinere resistere iubet, ipse ad nāvēs revertitur;

Having learned this, Caesar ordered the legions and cavalry to be called back and to halt on the march, and he himself returned to the ships;

5.11.2eadem ferē quae ex nūntiīs litterīsque cognōverat cōram perspicit, sīc ut āmissīs circiter XL nāvibus reliquae tamen reficī posse magnō negōtiō vidērentur.

he saw with his own eyes almost the same things that he had learned from the messengers and the letter, so that, though about forty ships had been lost, it seemed that the rest could still be repaired with great effort.

Note. cōram: 'in person', with his own eyes. sīc ut … vidērentur: result clause.

5.11.3Itaque ex legiōnibus fabrōs dēligit et ex continentī aliōs arcessī iubet;

So he chose craftsmen from the legions and ordered others to be summoned from the continent;

5.11.4Labiēnō scrībit, ut quam plūrimās posset eīs legiōnibus, quae sunt apud eum, nāvēs īnstituat.

he wrote to Labienus to build as many ships as he could with the legions that were with him.

5.11.5Ipse, etsī rēs erat multae operae ac labōris, tamen commodissimum esse statuit omnēs nāvēs subdūcī et cum castrīs ūnā mūnītiōne coniungī.

He himself, although it was a matter of much work and labour, decided that it was best for all the ships to be hauled up and joined to the camp by a single fortification.

Note. multae operae ac labōris: genitive of description. omnēs nāvēs subdūcī: accusative and infinitive as subject of commodissimum esse.

5.11.6In hīs rēbus circiter diēs X cōnsūmit nē nocturnīs quidem temporibus ad labōrem mīlitum intermissīs.

He spent about ten days on this work, without the soldiers' labour being stopped even at night.

5.11.7Subductīs nāvibus castrīsque ēgregiē mūnītīs eāsdem cōpiās, quās ante, praesidiō nāvibus relīquit: ipse eōdem unde redierat proficīscitur.

When the ships had been hauled up and the camp very well fortified, he left the same forces as before to guard the ships, and he himself set out for the same place from which he had returned.

5.11.8Eō cum vēnisset, maiōrēs iam undique in eum locum cōpiae Britannōrum convēnerant summa imperī bellīque administrandī commūnī cōnsiliō permissa Cassivellaunō, cuius fīnēs ā maritimīs cīvitātibus flūmen dīvidit, quod appellātur Tamesis, ā marī circiter mīlia passuum LXXX. Huic superiōre tempore cum reliquīs cīvitātibus continentia bella intercesserant;

When he had come there, larger forces of the Britons had already gathered at that place from all sides, the supreme command and conduct of the war having been entrusted by common decision to Cassivellaunus, whose territory is divided from the coastal states by a river called the Thames, about eighty miles from the sea. Earlier there had been continual wars between him and the other states;

Note. The sentence runs on into Huic superiōre tempore …, which begins a new sentence in most editions; the splitter did not break after the numeral LXXX. Cassivellaunus' territory lay north of the Thames.

5.11.9sed nostrō adventū permōtī Britannī hunc tōtī bellō imperiōque praefēcerant.

but, alarmed by our arrival, the Britons had put him in charge of the whole war and the command.